Already over fifty, Francis Ford Coppola The Godfather continues to improve with age. While words like “mafia” and “Cosa Nostra” are never uttered once in the film, no other crime film is as celebrated and appreciated as this one. By now, most fans know that real-life gang activity inspired The Godfatherbut not everyone may know exactly how or why. More specifically, they may not know that the critical scene in which Michael Corleone shoots Virgil Sollozzo was inspired by a true story.
That scene, however legendary, represents a crucial turning point in The Godfather franchise, and none of it would have turned out the way it did if it weren't for Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo, played by actor Al Lettieri. The character provided the spark that ultimately led to the Corleone family's downfall and became one of crime film's most important supporting characters.
Who is Virgil Sollozzo in The Godfather?
An agent of change
Although seemingly a secondary antagonist in the more expansive Godfather franchising, Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo is a key character in the plot. Known as “The Turk” due to his nose resembling a Turkish scimitar, Sollozzo earned his reputation as a powerful drug lord by harvesting poppies in the fields of Turkey with laboratories based in Italy. Once Sollozzo emigrated to New York City, he enlisted the help of the Tattaglia family to support his then-fledgling heroin business.
Soon after, Virgil Sollozzo wanted to join the Corleone family to gain additional funding and protection from the American justice system. To Sollozzo's surprise, Don Vito Corleone refused to help him, believing that the drug business would cost him too much in terms of political connections.
Instead of sneaking off into the night, Sollozzo hatches a plan. Recognizing that Vito's son, Sonny, would be more receptive to working in the drug trade than his father, Sollozzo orders Vito killed despite “not liking violence.”
To ensure the plan goes off without a hitch, Sollozzo also kidnaps Corleone family consigliere Tom Hagen to convince Sonny to accept the deal and refuse revenge for his father's death. Tom agrees to do what he can to help, but warns Sollozzo that Vito's bodyguard Luca Brasi would not accept Vito's death on his arm, which is why Sollozzo took Brasi first, killing him and taking him out of the equation entirely. During Christmas, Sollozzo puts his plan into action, having Vito shoot him as he crosses the street to buy oranges from a greengrocer. Instead of killing the head of the Corleone family, they only seriously wound him. And the one thing Sollozzo hasn't been counting on this entire time is Michael Corleone.
What happens to Virgil Sollozzo in The Godfather?
He left the gun and took the calf
With Vito Corleone refusing to die, Virgil Sollozzo orders a second hit from the mob boss. This time, Mark McCluskey, a corrupt police captain in Sollozzo's employ, facilitates the hospital hit by removing Vito's bodyguards. However, like his boss, McCluskey ignores Michael Corleone, who arrives just in time to save his father and affirm his loyalty to Vito at his bedside.
While Vito recovers from his wounds, Sonny takes over as interim head of the family. Michael, knowing that Vito will never be safe while Sollozzo is alive, convinces his brother to let him kill McCluskey and Sollozzo. Being the decorated World War II veteran that he is (not to mention a civilian rather than a criminal), Michael believes that Sollozzo will agree to sit down with him, and that is exactly what happens at a Bronx restaurant that Sollozzo claims serves the best veal in town.
What Sollozzo (and McCluskey) don't know is that Michael isn't there to negotiate. Not really. Instead, the Corleone family has placed a gun in the restaurant bathroom with duct tape over the handle to hide any fingerprints. After taking a moment to recover and pick up the gun in the bathroom, Michael resurfaces on the dining room floor and blows Sollozzo and McCluskey to pieces with the gun.Soon after, Michael is smuggled out of the city and sent to Sicily, where his journey from innocent civilian to corrupt crime lord continues to evolve at an alarming rate.
Meanwhile, in New York City, Sollozzo's murder leads to an all-out mob war that both Sollozzo and Tom Hagen had predicted would happen. The Corleones and the Tattaglias go to war, with the other New York City crime families supporting the latter. Sonny is soon killed and Vito regains control. He brokers peace between the families but is shocked to discover that Emilio Barzini is the one who approved Sollozzo overstepping his bounds in the first place. Eventually, Vito is killed and Michael returns to America to seek revenge on Barzini and the other New York City crime families, fulfilling his destiny by becoming the head of the Corleone crime family.
Is Virgil Sollozzo's death based on a historical event?
He wasn't as lucky as this other infamous gangster
In The Godfather DocumentsAuthor Mario Puzo reveals that he wrote The Godfather from the material he uncovered based on his research on Italian crime families. This means that the murder of Virgil Sollozzo and Mark McCluskey, which sparked the Five Families War in The Godfather, is a stand-in for a real event. More specifically, the scene in question was inspired by the elimination of Joe Masseria.
Giuseppe Masseria, better known as “Joe the Boss” and “The Man Who Could Dodge Bullets,” was born in Marsala, Sicily, in 1886. He came to America not to dodge a bullet, but a murder charge in his homeland. Once there, he settled in New York City. In 1930, the Castellammare War began when his Sicilian father, Don Vito Cascio Ferro, sent Salvatore Maranzano to America to settle a territorial dispute instigated by Masseria. Mario Puzo combined elements of both Masseria and Maranzano in the character who became Virgil Sollozzo, while Michael Corleone's real-life contemporary for the corresponding scene was none other than the infamous gangster Lucky Luciano. Here's how things connect.
As the Castellammare War continued to rage, Lucky Luciano's associations with other mobsters caught the attention of Joe Masseria, who attempted to rein in the young mobster. Lucky agreed to meet with the elder statesman, but he was planning something more nefarious.
On April 15, 1931, Luciano met Masseria at Nuova Villa Tammaro in Coney Island. They ate and played cards there before Lucky excused himself to use the bathroom. As Lucky was washing his hands at the sink, a series of hitmen burst into the main room of the restaurant and sprayed it with bullets. When all was said and done, Joe Masseria was dead, with his playing cards still in his hand. From that day forward, the ace of spades became known as the “death card.”
Second Murders Inc. by Sid Feder, one of the men who killed Masseria was Benny Siegel, along with Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis and Albert “The Lord High Executioner” Anastasia. Siegel was later part of the gang that also killed Maranzano. As for Lucky, just like Michael Corleone, Luciano moved to Italy after the initial murder, but unlike Michael, it was because the authorities had deported him.
Embellishing this realistic feud, Mario Puzo created the character of Virgil Sollozzo, who set in motion the series of narrative events that led to one of the most acclaimed film franchises of all time. Virgil Sollozzo’s place in the history books of cinema is assured for this reason alone.